Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Author Inteview- Liz Flaherty

Morning Readers, please join me in welcoming the wonderful Liz Flaherty and her writing pal, Bandit,  as she graciously accepts her place on the hot seat.




Liz, tell me three words that describe yourself starting with A, B, and C.

Wow, nothing like starting with a stumper. I always say I’m nice, which requires no thought at all, so…uh…I’m affectionate, barefoot, and clumsy. (Clumsy doesn’t bode all that well for the barefoot part, either, believe me!)



What are your three favorite things?

Family, writing, and quilting, as far as the things that I’d hate to try living without. However, sunrises, pasta, and Pringles potato chips help, too.

 What for you is the best part of writing?

The writing itself. Getting to know the people, making pictures with words. Also—sorry, I know this is two—knowing other writers. I know we’re a little…oh, skewed, for want of a better word, but I just love writers.

 What is the worst?

 Promotion.

Was there any particular inspiration for your characters or story?

The characters in THE GIRLS OF TONSIL LAKE have been friends all their lives, and even though most of the things that happen to them are fictitious, they have quirks and habits and even features of my friends. I haven’t had my BFFs all my life, nor do we have secrets that bind us, but the feelings are the same—I didn’t have to stretch to write them.

Thanks for having me here today, Angela!

Come and see me at:

http://wordwranglers.blogspot.com/
http://www.lizflaherty.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Liz-Flaherty/e/B001J919R4
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3336348.Liz_Flaherty

I can be reached at lizkflaherty@gmail.com and I love hearing from you!

Buy link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Girls-Tonsil-Lake-Flaherty-ebook/dp/B00HJESTYO



Blurb: They were four little girls living in ramshackle trailers beside a lake in rural Indiana. They shared everything from dreams to measles to boyfriends to more dreams. As they grew up, everything in their lives changed--except their friendship. Through weddings and divorces, births and deaths, one terrible secret has kept them close despite all the anger, betrayal, and pain.
Now, forty years later, facing illness, divorce, career challenges, and even addiction, the women come together once again for a bittersweet month on an island in Maine. Staring down their fifties, they must consider the choices life is offering them now and face the pain of what happened long ago.
Secrets are revealed and truths uncovered, but will their time together cement their lifelong friendship--or drive them apart forever?

Excerpt:
I wanted Andie to come to New York,but  she didn’t feel up to it. I felt a little shudder go through me when she said that. Andie’s always been so strong, and she’s cancer-free, so I found it startling and frightening when she admitted to feeling less than wonderful. But, as Let There Be Hope shows, cancer changes one in sometimes indefinable ways. Maybe this is one of those changes.
Mark and I visited some islands off the Maine coast once, in our early days. I was so enthralled that he bought me a house on one of them, a little strip of green called, appropriately enough, Hope Island. It reminds me of Bennett’s Island, the fictitious utopia of Elisabeth Ogilvie’s books, except that Hope has all the mod cons.
I love to go there. It’s a place I can be myself with little regard to what anyone else thinks. I sit in my bathrobe on the wraparound porch of the Victorian horror that is my house and drink coffee with Lucas Bishop, our neighbor. I read Jean’s books without worrying that someone will see the covers.
I’ve never taken anyone else—it was Mark’s and my private getaway—but I wouldn’t mind if it was Andie who was there. Or Jean and even Suzanne. Andie and I could work on her book. Jean could cook and keep house since she’s so crazy about doing that, and maybe even spin out one of her romances placed on an island. And Suzanne could...do our hair or something.
We would all be together as we are that single night every year when we drive to the lake and pretend we’re facing down our ghosts. I am a little afraid that the day will come that we’ll have to face them down for real.
I wonder if they’d come.
Bio if you want it: The Girls of Tonsil Lake is Liz’s eighth book, and it is no less thrilling than the first one was. Retired from the post office, she spends non-writing time sewing, quilting, and doing whatever else she wants to. She and Duane live in the old farmhouse in Indiana they moved to in 1977. They’ve talked about moving, but really…36 years’ worth of stuff? It’s not happening!

18 comments:

  1. Eight books, sewing, quilting, Liz you are a writer of all trades!

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    1. Thanks, Angela. Each of those things helps me to procrastinate from doing the others! Thanks for having me here today.

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  2. Love your choices for A-B-C... and love the sound of your new book. Adding it my TBR now!

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  3. I like your "making pictures with words"! Great comment. As for challenges with promotion--I so understand that!! Best of luck. Barb Bettis

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    1. Thanks, Barb. You're one of the reasons I like writers so much. :-)

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  4. All of your books sound wonderful, Liz, and I'm going to have to bump them higher on my TBB list! And if you were up here with the rest of us Hoosiers, you wouldn't be barefoot, lol! Wanna swap locations? I need sun and warmer temps!

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    1. Yes, I think we came south at the right time, though it's not too warm here, either. Thanks for coming by, Molly.

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  5. Nice interview, Liz! Love "The Girls..." what a fabulous story!

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  6. great interview! I like the 3 words to describe you!

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  7. My copy of The Girls of Tonsil Lake got stuck in the storm, but I've been reassured that it is on its way.
    Your novels are the reason I'm getting myself a wingback chair. I haven't read this much for myself since well before the kids were born!

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    1. That's nice to hear, Angie--means it's good for the soul, always a good thing!

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  8. And I'm claiming Angeline's copy when she's through with it!!

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  9. Sorry I'm late, but I just wanted to say - Great Post. I can't wait to read Girls of Tonsil Lake!

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